de Waerheyt is so ghy, en Ghy zijt de Waerheyt so.
ll. 11-12. _As lightning, or a Tapers light Thine eyes, and not thy noise wak'd mee._
'A sodain light brought into a room doth awaken some men; but yet a noise does it better.' _Sermons_ 50. 38. 344.
'A candle wakes some men as well as a noise.' _Sermons_ 80. 61. 617.
ll. 15-16. _But when I saw thou sawest my heart, And knew'st my thoughts, beyond an Angels art._
Modern editors, by removing the comma after 'thoughts', have altered the sense of these lines. It is not that she could read his thoughts better than an angel, but that she could read them at all, a power which is not granted to Angels.
St. Thomas (_Summa Theol._ Quaest. lvii. Art. 4) discusses 'Utrum angeli cognoscant cogitationes cordium', and concludes, 'Cognoscunt Angeli cordium cogitationes in suis effectibus: ut autem in se ipsis sunt, Deo tantum sunt naturaliter cognitae.' Angels may read our thoughts by subtler signs than our words and acts, or even those changes of countenance and pulsation which we note in each other, 'quanto subtilius huiusmodi immutationes occultas corporales perpendunt.' But to know them as they are in the intellect and will belongs only to God, to whom only the freedom of the human will is subject, and a man's thoughts are subject to his will. 'Manifestum est autem, quod ex sola voluntate dependet, quod aliquis actu aliqua consideret; quia cum aliquis habet habitum scientiae, vel species intelligibiles in eo existentes, utitur eis cum vult. Et ideo dicit Apostolus I Corinth. secundo: quod _quae sunt hominis, nemo novit nisi spiritus hominis qui in ipso est_.'
Donne recurs to this theme very frequently: 'Let the Schoole dispute infinitely (for he that will not content himself with means of salvation till all Schoole points be reconciled, will come too late); let Scotus and his Heard think, That Angels, and separate souls have a naturall power to understand thoughts ... And let Aquinas present his arguments to the contrary, That those spirits have no naturall power to know thoughts; we seek no farther, but that Jesus Christ himself thought it argument enough to convince the Scribes and Pharisees, and prove himself God, by knowing their thoughts. _Eadem Maiestate et potentia_ sayes _S. Hierome_, Since you see I proceed as God, in knowing your thoughts, why beleeve you not that I may forgive his sins as God too?' _Sermons_ 80. 11. 111; and compare also _Sermons_ 80. 9. 92.